MArcomage

Would it be feasible to set up the AI system so that you could "switch players" in "create game" mode (but not "challenge" mode)? That way you could test one of your decks against another. The AI does an OK job of that with certain decks like tower down, but doesn't play rares or tokens well.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. If you want to test your deck, you can give the deck to the AI player to test. Or did you mean to let two AI players to play against each other? That's an interesting idea, however I don't know if that would be useful.

I think he means that the player should be able to switch which side he is controlling, i.e. switch controls with AI

Most chess programs let you play both sides of the board or you can let the AI play. This is the same idea, except here you probably would pit two different decks against each other (rather than matching armies as in chess). Since the marcomage AI is understandably somewhat limited in its long-range analysis, it can't realistically plan three or four moves ahead. Could you use the same "switch players" mode that appears in replays to switch the manual and the AI hands back and forth? The AI's cards would always be at the bottom, the players hand at the top. If you want the AI to play the next card, click the execute box as at present; but if you want to choose the next card for the other hand to play, switch hands, then play. (There may be a better, easier, faster way to accomplish this; I just thought part of the mechanism might already be in place.)

I think I understand now. What you want to do is to take manual control of the AI turn at any time to improve his gameplay, right?

Right.

In that case I propose a simpler solution:

There is much free space in the buttons area when it's AI's turn. I would add select boxes for card position, card action, card mode and "play instead of AI" button. This makes game switching unnecessary. So, if you would like to play a turn instead of the AI, you would not push the "execute AI move" button, but instead you would specify which card, which action and which mode and then you would push the "play instead of AI" button.

Also, I think it would be a good idea to have this menu be disabled by default and activated in the settings, so the new players wouldn't be confused.

I think that is an excellent idea, much more streamlined than the mechanism I suggested. I predict players will use the option regularly to test decks.

And what about the Hidden cards mode?

I don't think it should be available in the hidden cards mode. What's the point to play hidden cards mode if you can sneak a peek at the other hand anytime you want to? But that leads me to a related question: can the AI "see" my cards even when I am playing it in hidden cards mode? The AI seems to have an uncanny ability to detect and discard rares even in hidden mode.

Well, it's kind of odd to ask if the "AI sees", because of the nature of the AI. What I can say is that AI's behavior is based on the play preview functionality and unlike the player, the AI is able to use it even in hidden game mode.

I meant "see" metaphorically. What you are saying is that the information available to the AI in computing its next play includes the contents of my hand even in a blind game in which I cannot see its hand, am I correct?

Not exactly. AI is using card preview functionality to determine it's move. It doesn't view your hand when determining his move in the sense how player would view it.

It calculates the maximum cost-benefit ratio or something like that Which is why it discards rares whenever it can?

Rare discard behavior is not that simple, but for simplicity we could say that something similar is taking place.

The algorithm is pretty effective most of the time, and it's applied the same whether in a blind game and a seeing game, right? So back to your previous question, if you decide to implement a mechanism where the player also may play the AI's cards, I don't think it makes much sense to offer a blind-game option because the player always can reveal the AI's hand if he wants to anyway and the AI has an AI version of ESP.

Indeed.